 Looking for a quick fix?
The smorgasbord of health and wellbeing opportunities is vast. The gadgets and short cuts, the pills and supplements, the quick fixes and promises that feel amazing for a while, then fade into the shadow of the next great discovery. The choice and invitation to shop around is tempting. Yoga stands the test of time Yoga has developed over thousands of years as a roadmap using the tools of posture, breath, attention and meditation to help you live well and find contentment, serenity, and health. Yoga has great depth and applicability to modern life. Shopping around is possible while you find the approach that works for you. But then the commitment to your chosen approach is part of the process. Take time to cultivate a precious relationship with your own body, breath and mind. Alongside this it helps to have a teacher who can get to know you and your practice and guide you while you learn the skills and navigate the obstacles. What's the downside? I have yet to find a downside to regularly practicing yoga. The decades of practice only keep me coming back to my mat. The intimate relationship I have developed with the postures and breath are a bedrock foundation to my life that supports me to every day whether life is exciting, tough or painful. Whether I have energy, injury or illness. The process of practicing is an essential component of my day to nourish what I need and become grounded and connected. Your next class There is always something you can do, however subtle or bold it needs to be, and the art of yoga is that the more you understand it, the more skills you cultivate with your own body, breath and mind. Yoga becomes your lifelong companion and support, no matter what the latest flavour of the month may be. It starts on your mat, today, or tomorrow, or at your next class. Enjoy 🌞
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 Until...?
I love the 'never stop pushing' slogan. It sums up an approach to life that is all around us. The poster of it caught my eye this morning in a shop on Gloucester Road. It is a common method to think you are getting the most out of life when you are busy and doing more, pushing harder, and it reflects an inherent dissatisfaction with what we currently have. If we get busy enough, if we do enough things, if we dig deeper and keep going until we get to the end of the week and collapse in a heap, did we win? What is the prize? Yoga asks something else of us We all have things we would like, or need to do. Work, life, family, relationships, desires, fun, creativity. There is space for all of these and they are all important. Yoga doesn't suggest that we sit around all day taking it easy and never getting anything done. Nor does it suggest that we power up and push through for an hour and that we will come out rebalanced and serene at the end. We might just come out stretched, wired and pumped for more. For every extra push, there is an equal and opposite reaction. A push back. A toll is taken. If we just keep pushing, at some point we are at risk of falling over. Sthira / Sukha There is a verse from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras which sums it up nicely. It states that when practicing yoga, every posture and practice should have in equal measure: Sthira: sturdiness and effort Sukha: ease and openness. Both are equally important. Without both, you're missing the mark. Yoga has balance built in. Return to balance Do we personally need more of one or the other? If we tend to push forwards in life and only stop when we are exhausted or are forced to, then more ease and openness could be exactly what we need. If we tend to be a bit lacklustre and drift through our days, then more focus and effort may be the right balancing force. We often have a dominant mode, personal to us. It might feel hard to do the other. And there lies your practice... Each posture and each practice can support effort and ease in equal measure. Our life needs both Too soft and you'll become lethargic and unmotivated, too much and you'll eventually be exhausted. And along the way as our yoga practice develops, we notice that life isn't inherently dissatisfactory. We might just be looking in the wrong place for satisfaction. Have a balanced week 🌞  Breathing is curious
We do it all day every day without thinking. Sometimes we might think about it when it doesn't feel right, when we have a chest infection, or are in an unpleasant environment where the air isn't fresh. Harness your breathing In yoga, breathwork is one of the primary tools. There are a variety of ways it can be used to amplify the natural effects of breathing creating noticable effects on body, mind, energy and balance. You can try emphasising inhaling or exhaling, pausing after inhaling to stimulate your energy and vitality, you can add a gentle wait after exhaling to calm yourself and settle overactive systems and mental states. However overdo it and the opposite is true, so skilled guidance and practice is important. It helps sleep, when you know how One of my students couldn't sleep the other night so she tried the box breathing that we are working with this month. It didn't help. Box breathing is quite a stimulating, revitalising technique which when trying to sleep will overstimulate and wake you up more. It doesn't mean the technique isn't useful, just not for that time of night. Getting to know your breathing and posture toolkit to help your daily life is brilliant. Extended, gentle exhales would be a good starting point if sleep is problematic. Breath-centred yoga Breathwork is a whole branch of yoga practice. One of the hallmarks of my classes is the way the breathing is applied both during poses and at the end of class to rebalance us. We are moving air pressure in different parts of the body. Pressurising different places in the various poses. An opening posture (e.g. Warrior 1) with an upper body inhale amplifies the effects of both the posture and the breath for a compound effect. Add a skilful breath pause and see what happens. Learning to direct our breathing into different areas of the body, emphasising chest or belly breathing to address imbalances in your normal patterns where tension and tightness may have become the norm. This can have a profoundly beneficial effect on mental and physical health. Emphasise inhale or exhale? Emphasising the inhale, breathing into our upper chest, being stimulated, alert and vibrant, expanding to invite and lift energy is great for a morning class. But go carefully. Anxiety, aggression, disorganisation, can tip over into making these worse. The invitation to mindfully observe effects of the pose is exactly the place to note what serves you well and what doesn't. By the end of class, you should feel balanced, relaxed, vibrant, calm. And the effect doesn't stop there. If you're agitated or annoyed in the rest of your day, then think again, a balanced state has not been achieved yet. Note the effects so you can learn what you actually need, not what you think you need. They are different. Evening classes can down-regulate your nervous system with closing postures and longer exhales to support a balanced ending to a busy day. Positivity and good sleep that night should follow effortlessly. It can go wrong, let's get it right Get it wrong and you'll be wired after your class and its 9pm when you want to be winding down for sleep. Or you feel zombified or disorganised mid-morning and may not sleep well later on. Get it right and you'll feel balanced, vibrant, alert, calm, and in harmony with your body, mind, environment and those around you. Get to know your breath, learn where the techniques can be helpful so that you can draw upon them when needed. As always, come and chat if you haven't yet got the hang of it as it does take a little practice but is well worth the effort. Enjoy  One of my wonderful, long-standing students began running during lockdown and it has become a regular, daily routine. She loves it and is convinced that the regular yoga that she does helps her stay injury free.
Running is better with yoga Running is simply brilliant if you can do it. It gets you outside, promotes lots of physical benefits, boosts feel good hormones and clears your head. Accompanying it with regular yoga helps you remain injury free, takes care of tight bits that emerge, and provides space to engage with mindful grounding that can help enhance the enjoyment of your running and notice injuries sooner. Maintenance We all have to take care of maintaining our health, whether it is mental health, physical, emotional and being prepared for what life will inevitably throw at us. We do what we can, what we enjoy, and what we will keep up. And anything is better than nothing. Cultivate more then the physical One of the understated aspects of yoga, beyond being safer from injury and recovering faster, is the easier, calmer, kinder attitude that we can cultivate with ourselves. As aging unfolds, and limitations are encountered, when we can no longer do what we were used to doing, we can discover that there is another path to being and feeling well. We start to discover and cultivate a more positive relationship with ourselves that doesn’t rely on the abilities of the physical body. We practice finding it easier to accept and even be grateful for the health opportunities and challenges as a part of life and a part of our practice. Yoga can teach and show us how to practice connecting to a more peaceful place that contains us even when everything else is seemingly falling apart. Even better than a healthy body Even better than remaining injury free, is feeling content when life and body don’t comply with what you would like to happen. Finding a breath-centred yoga practice gives you skills, techniques and subtle understandings beyond the (wonderful) benefits and effects of postures. When limitations do come up, you have other methods to help you land in that same place. Helping avoid frustration and discomfort and enjoying calm, contentment and serenity as you journey through life no matter whether your body is cooperating with what you would like it to do, or not. Enjoy.  Last year was the trickiest yet. It was challenging, unpredictable, chaotic and emotional. On the days when events were heightened, I have never been more grateful for small acts of kindness. A smile in the street, and a warm conversation at the shop went a long way to helping my day feel better.
Kindness & yoga go a long way Kindness isn't enough but it goes a long, long way. Thankfully, I have yoga as my mainstay, which helps me start each day with a fresh outlook, a more relaxed body and nervous system to be able to cope as well as I can as challenges unfold. Remember knee slides? Kindness isn't enough to make you a good yoga teacher. It helps and is an essential quality really, but you also need developed skills and experience to help a broader range of people. Older bodies need more care and skill than the easy breezy 20 somethings who can still do knee slides (remember them! I can't even watch any longer). As we age we need extra levels of expertise to navigate all that we come with. Life accumulates and leaves its marks As life progresses, injuries have been accumulated and left their mark, life has left us highly strung, our day-to-day posture is becoming fixed in ways that reflect our lifestyles and lifes challenges, which are often sedentary or lack time and space to stretch and unwind enough. Skill & expertise at YogaSpace The standards of care, skill and expertise we have at YogaSpace are far beyond anywhere else in Bristol. Most of us have decades of experience. 3 of our teachers have been studying yoga and sharing their craft for 40+ years (each). Many of us took 3 or 4 years of extensive study to become yoga teachers, far beyond the typical 9-month (or even 1-month in many cases) 200 hour training popular today. I started practicing yoga 28 years ago and began my 4-year teacher training study 21 years ago. This means something. This gives experience to draw upon, gathered from the vast array of bodies and minds that I've worked with over the years. This all helps guide you into a fruitful yoga practice. Working with and around all that you come with to take yoga in a way that can work its wonders for you. Enjoy your yoga, with all that you come with.  It's been years since I was a smoker.
I really enjoyed it, but realised it wouldn't be easy to stop. Alan Carrs book, Quit Smoking offered an important stepping stone. The reframe it offers is that at first it feels like you are giving up something, that you are sacrificing your beloved cigarette and all that that comes with. But he turns it around. He invited me to see that rather giving something up, I was gaining freedom from something. I would be free from the need to have a cigarette in my hand, I would enjoy better health, fresher clothes and breath, and save money. The same net gain applies to the technique offered in this week's classes. It is a tiny yet powerful tweak to your practice that you can bring in at any time. It starts with just two breaths Between each yoga pose, completely stop, for two breaths. Leave the sweatshirt where it is, feel the rogue hair on your face but don't adjust it, and just stand and experience the moment - even if it is uncomfortable. An intentional pause. A hiatus from the constant movement and reactivity to impulses that arise in us all day long. These might be the only moments of stillness in your entire day. It has had a powerful effect on many of you. It can be a revelation I know, we come to yoga to move right? But... Some have felt relief, spaciousness, feeling more free once the option to adjust and lose the focus is contained. I'm sure others who didn't like it found it tricky or frustrating or uncomfortable, but it is interesting to try either way and something to practice. Stillness is underrated Unintentional moving expends energy and encourages us to be constantly distracted. At first it might feel like an effort not to move. Changing a long-time habit might meet resistance. But like Alan Carr, try flipping this on its head. Instead of seeing it as effort to remain still, see is as freedom from habits that might not be serving you well. Pointless? Try it anyway It starts with 2 small breaths, staying completely still after each pose. It might feel uncomfortable, unnatural, or even pointless. That is okay, try it anyway. Over time, it develops into being comfortable with stillness. And once you find that, the relief is immense and quite a revelation. Yoga is sometimes called a 'moving meditation' but in many ways, the moving aspects of yoga practice are the precursor to learning how to be still physically with ease, then mentally. The asanas (postures) prepare you, your body and your mind to feel more comfortable in finding stillness and calmness that can be taken into a more contemplative phase to your yoga journey and help find more space and ease in day-to-day life. Enjoy.  I went to an EPIC 3D movie last weekend and had a blast. It was loud, the seat vibrated, the screen was huge and absorbing and the story was fun, sad, exciting, dramatic.
It was almost completely absorbing (not quite, the 3D glasses were really heavy!). I sort of disappeared and got caught up in the story and had a great time. Disconnection from ourselves Disconnection from ourselves happens more when we are engaging in lots of busy, external activities. Work, looking after family and friends, engaging in entertainment (3D movies!) that take us out of ourselves. Arguably, modern life is more disconnected ever. Our lives are more and more mediated by screens and our entertainment is more passive, less sociable and less physical.  Why being good isn't the point
Someone mentioned to me this week that they used to be better at yoga than they are now. Do you ever think that you aren't very good at yoga? Notice self-judgement Perhaps we have judged our performance in a pose, or noticed that we weren't doing a pose for as long as someone next to us or that we should be better than we are. That we didn't sweat much or that we didn't try hard enough. The real measure These aren't the measures of being good at yoga.  Yesterday as I was cycling to the studio, a motorist wound down his window and said my bike light wasn't working. I was confused. My light was sitting on the front of my bike blinking brightly, my back light was doing the same. I carried on none the wiser, heckled for not being lit up enough amongst the array of lights on Gloucester Road. I can only think that with the other 10,000 lights on the street he didn't see them. They got lost in the noise.
The sensory stimulation is at its highest at this time of year (Christmas). Filled with optimism and hoping for joy, we are bombarded with jingly music and bright blinking lights. It is wonderful, and overwhelming. Try this mini-pause Taking regular breaks from it all is never more important than now. It is a wonderful time to take 5 minutes, dim the lights, light a candle and withdraw from the noise. Set up Turn off your phone, tell folks in your house your busy for 5 minutes, close the door to you bedroom  There is always a way to work with yoga postures, improve our breathing, and develop strength, stability, focus and calm. Sometimes it needs modified postures to access all the benefits. The challenges can still be found for engagement and progression, with the right support to help. Join Clara in January on Wednesdays at 1:30pm for a modified class to support those who have mobility issues, want a more gentle practice, or are recovering from illness. Everyone is welcome, young and old, experienced and beginners. Feel free to get in touch for more information. Look forward to seeing you there. From Jan 7th, 2026 1:30pm - 2:30pm Wednesdays   When we step on our yoga mat, we usually have multiple aims. Maintaining health We know we need to maintain our back health so that it isn't tweaky, or our knees need constant love (mine do). We might know that we need to unwind tension or relax our tight shoulders. We probably know that our nervous system is highly charged and could do with a reset, or that our energy is dissipated and needs refreshing. But at the same time as taking care of our bodies and minds, we are simultaneously stepping into a closer relationship with the present moment.  Why in modern-day Bristol would we want to recite a mantra that is thousands of years old in an ancient and rarely spoken language?
Recently we have been learning the 'Sarva santhi' mantra. It is beautiful, ancient and in Sanskrit, the oldest language in existence. With precise rules around pronounciation, letter differentiation, pause, and rhythm the traditional repetition has lasted through the ages. Reciting it links us into a tradition of invoking peace into minds and hearts so that we can embody and encourage it. The chant asks for peace at all levels of existence, internally within ourselves and externally in the environment around us. Easing back ache increases peace In our yoga practice, we could view what what we are doing as strengthening internal peace in our bodies, our breath and our minds.  Postures are amazing for helping us gain whole body strength, mobility and stability - physically, mentally, emotionally and beyond.
We can do the postures in a technical way, follow the instructions, and we will get lots of wonderful benefits. So why refine beyond this? What does that even mean? Going further Further doesn't mean more extreme or complicated movements or harder postures. That can miss opportunities for a different kind of depth. See if these steps seem familiar to you: We know it makes us feel better to get up and move. When we do yoga or exercise our mood shifts and we feel lighter and more energised. Even if dragging ourselves to do it is difficult, it is always worth it.
Science agrees! A recent research article in the journal of Depression and Anxiety shows how yoga is one of the top 3 modes, more than running or cycling, for improving depression. 109 minutes weekly dose It even says 109 minutes is the 'dose' needed each week. That equals a weekly class + 3x 16 minute home sessions. Or 2 weekly classes.  My dog was poorly last night and I'm soooo tired today.
Every 2 hours I had to get off the sofa bed downstairs and head into the garden to accompany my sorry looking pooch. No-one had fun. But my yoga practise this morning wasn't up for negotiation. I still stepped gently on to my mat. It was less demanding physically, responsive to what I encountered as I moved, fully present to the experience of a very different feeling body and mind. And it was completely refreshing and reviving, freeing up the achey-sofa-bed-back, and setting me up for the day. Refresh your attitude Taking yoga when you are injured, tired, or with a different frame of mind can give you a wonderfully new experience from the usual.  Stress makes life feel exciting, fun, exhilarating and provides opportunity for growth and challenge. Change is part of the fabric of our days. But change often doesn't go the way we would like it to. We have to face adversity, disappointment, frustration and loss.
"Yoga doesn't prevent stress ... but it strengthens our inner resources and enables us to develop a sort of cushion, an increased ability to withstand stress. It's like having a good shock absorber when driving a car on a bumpy road." TKV Desikachar  This is the time of year to start as you mean to go on. An opportunity for a fresh approach.
Set-up an Autumn routine that is going to serve you as well as possible. It won't happen by accident. Spend 10 minutes today seeing what you need in your life to nourish you to ensure you have a wonderful Autumn and show up in your life in the way you want to. Look at your habits Whether we need to look at our eating and drinking habits, social life, work, or yoga practice and health patterns - we all need to actively schedule in the things that will support us so that we can hold steady when busy-ness and challenges inevitably come along. Nourishment We need to nourish ourselves so that the demands of life aren't greater than what we have to offer. What nourishes you? It could be a wide range of things. Of course regular yoga, spending time with people that you enjoy, listening to music, hobbies that are fun or spark another aspect or yourself, nourishing foods and much needed rest and relaxation. Schedule them in This is a busy time of year so make sure you schedule in what you need, otherwise it will fall to the wayside and before you know it your life has been taken over. Get to your yoga practice at least every week, re-start your home practice try this starting point > to connect every day to the nourishing aspects yoga. Use your calendar (get a calendar!). And don't negotiate with yourself when it is time to do it. Just show up because you know it will nourish you at a deeper level in a way that only yoga can.  When life is busy and the summer activities eat up our time, its important to stay attuned to our inner world. To remain connected to the essence of what yoga means for us and to continue to reconnect to ourselves in a deeper way.
Tuning in to our neglected parts Arriving on our mat, tuning in to our breath, our feet, our spine, are all part of the process. When we first arrive we may feel all over the place, agitated, stiff, relieved that we can stop for a moment. The body, energy and nervous system take time to settle and quieten, the postures allow us to explore the neglected outer reaches of our limbs and trunk, to move and unblock us, to ease and balance us and feel more energised. And our mind expands internally rather than externally. We connect to the body and breath in a more attentive and attuned way, allowing it to be felt and experienced in a more subtle and inviting way. Feeling from the inside out. Enjoy your moments now, rather than videos later By prioritising time and attention in this more subtle way, you are remembering to slow down and attend to the important but often overlooked stuff. Learn to stay grounded, connected and rooted so that you can remember to enjoy your days moment-by-moment, rather than rushing through making memories and videos to enjoy later. "As trees move with the wind, your mind moves with your breath"
BKS Iyengar Let's breathe How many times have you found yourself holding your breath when you didn't mean to? When we are tense, concentrating or upset, it is super common to hold our breath. When we do this, we put our nervous system into a state of alert ready to respond to something unknown, create physical tensions and add to the turbulence in our minds. It is a very common habit and pattern in day to day life, and in our yoga practice, and one well worth working on to improve. Shifting this pattern can be a revelation. To discover a new, healthier, more spacious breathing and body patterns where we feel more relaxed, we have more vitality and energy, and we even sleep and digest better. Flowing breath in our postures and breathwork are key aspects to improving our physical and mental wellbeing. Plus the meditative focusing layer on the breath during practice can help calm the turbulence in the mind. All yoga teachers teach this differently, with more or less emphasis on breathing. Find what helps you and enjoy discovering a fuller, more spacious relaxed, strong and stable body, breath and mind.  It feels like so much is changing at the moment.
My kids are entering new stages of their lives, there is the usual flux of summer schedules with holidays and plans, alongside some class changes and new equipment coming to the studio In the midst of change, I love my morning routine that keeps me constant and on the front foot each day. What's your morning routine? Perhaps a shower, tea, check emails, breakfast, clean teeth, walk the dog. |
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